Still searching

Monday

Robin Piacine's mother just happened to be reading a veterans magazine several years ago when she saw an ad seeking relatives of military personnel missing in the Korean War.

Eventually, Piacine's mother donated a DNA sample that she hopes one day will help identify the remains of her brother, an Army medic who remains unaccounted for.

"In order for us, our family to feel at rest ... we really would like to be able to have his remains returned to us so we could give him a full, honorable military funeral and give him a place of rest," said Piacine, who is now the president of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Piacine said Friday that bringing fallen loved ones home and giving closure to families such as hers is the goal of the Pennsylvania Project, a new effort to have relatives of servicemen and women missing from the Korean War, Cold War and Vietnam War donate DNA samples that could aid in identifying recovered remains.

In Beaver County, there are two missing servicemen, one from the Korean War and one from Vietnam, who have yet to have relatives give DNA samples.

Up until now, Piacine said, it was simply hit or miss whether families even learned where and how to donate their DNA. "It's just by chance," she said, "and that's not good enough."

TWO FAMILIES NEEDED

There are 8,100 U.S. military personnel still missing from the Korean War, 590 from Pennsylvania. More than 1,800 personnel are missing from Vietnam, including 97 Pennsylvanians.

Beaver County veterans' affairs director William Muns said 14 county residents are still listed as missing in action from the Korean War, but relatives have been found for all but one.

Marine Pfc. Charles L. Rebeske, a 21-year-old Beaver Falls resident, was killed in action Dec. 2, 1950, just three days before his birthday, according to military records. His remains have not been found.

The U.S. Department of Defense listed Rebeske's address as 1916 Sixth Ave. and his surviving relative as his mother, Mary Ann Rebeske, also of Beaver Falls.

Muns said one county resident is still missing from the Vietnam War who hasn't had relatives found to donate DNA samples.

James Francis Tritt, a 24-year-old Monaca native, was killed in the Gulf of Tonkin July 7, 1967, only six days before his birthday, while serving in the U.S. Navy. The Web site www.pownetwork.org lists him as "lost overboard."

The Pennsylvania Project was just launched on July 11, but Piacine's already received one call from a man with information on a comrade whose actions saved several other men. She said that her group welcomes telephone calls from anyone with information on missing personnel.

However, only relatives on the mother's side of the missing person's family can give a usable sample, scientifically known as mitochondrial DNA.

Relatives who are eligible include the maternal grandmother, mother, brothers and sisters, and aunts, uncles, cousins and nephews from the maternal side.

Piacine said family members who want to give DNA samples may call the casualty office for the branch of the military in which their missing relative served. The casualty office will then mail the relatives a kit with which they can swab the inside of their mouths and collect DNA samples.

"That's it," Piacine said. "It's painless."

Family members will receive some information about their DNA, which will be placed in a national database used to identify recovered remains. There are unidentified remains held in Hawaii by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which searches for missing personnel.

Piacine said President Bush has given a high priority to finding POWs and MIAs.

"If that is the way that they feel about it, we really need to be very aggressive and proactive about it," she said.

Muns said this is the first effort that he could recall that is actively looking for family members of missing military personnel to collect DNA samples.

Even after several decades or, in the case of the Korean War, more than half a century, families, friends and comrades want to know what happened to those who haven't returned home, he said.

"It's the old cliche," Muns said. "You never want to leave anybody behind."

J.D. Prose can be reached online at jprose@timesonline.com.

NEVER FORGET

l The Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, a nonprofit advocacy group in Mechanicsburg, Pa., has launched the Pennsylvania Project, which aims to find relatives of those still missing from the Korean War, Cold War and Vietnam War so that they can give DNA samples to help identify recovered remains. According to the Beaver County veterans' affairs office, there are two county residents, one from the Korean War and one from Vietnam, who have yet to be recovered and who haven't had relatives give DNA samples.

WHERE TO CALL, WRITE

Family of military personnel listed as missing in action from the Korean War, Cold War and Vietnam War who want to give a DNA sample to assist in identifying any recovered remains may call the casualty office of the military branch in which their relatives served:

l The Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs can be reached at (717) 691-5551 or at www.coalitionoffamilies.org. E-mail can be sent to coalition president Robin Piacine at robinpiacine@aol.com.

l Veterans with information that might help find missing comrades may call the Department of Defense's Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office at (703) 699-1100.

l The Web site of the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has details on its identification program and the collection of DNA, or "family reference samples." Go to www.jpac.pacom.mil and click on the link, located on the left side of the home page, for the Central Identification Laboratory.

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